Fourier Transforms

Introduction

"Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics." Few people appreciate statistics.
But at least they seem OK with this and don't go off starting religious wars
over the subject.

Alas, such is not the case with Fourier transforms.
In 30 years of working in acoustics, dynamic material testing, and vibrations,
I have never, ever seen any topic provoke more apocalyptic levels of
debate and outrage among technical types than the Fourier transform.

This tool must get misused and misinterpreted by more
people than anything I've ever seen. These poor souls are
ready to fight to the death over their erroneous conclusions.
They don't want to hear that they are adding 2 + 2 and getting 5.
They don't want to see that 2 real live apples added to 2 more apples
doesn't give 5. They've somehow got 5, and are absolutely certain
they are correct.

So herewith, my attempt to save their immortal souls....

After a brief detour into the areas of background and motivation,
we begin the first stage of exorcism with.... regressions.

Background

Fourier transforms and spectral analysis are motivated by the fact
that deformations in a tire are periodic, repeating with each and
every rotation. But while the deformations are periodic, they are
not simple sinusoids.
They are pulses in which all the action takes place
during the short period of contact with the road. This is evident in the figure below, which shows
the
principal strains, as well as
max and secondary shear strains for a tread
block rolling through contact.
It is clear that these traces are not straight-forward sinusoids. Therefore,
Fourier analysis of the data is not trivial. And therein lies the challenge.

Regression

Why talk about regression and curve-fitting on a page devoted to FFTs?
Because an FFT (short for "Fast Fourier Transform") is nothing more than
a curve-fit of sines and cosines to some
given data. Nothing more, nothing less. This simple fact is important
because people want to entrust FFTs with metaphysical abilities to reveal
insights into raw data that just don't necessarily exist.

For example, just because an FFT of vibration data produces a harmonic at
some given frequency, does NOT mean that the object was actually vibrating
at that frequency. You cannot blindly accept such results without
additional scrutiny. This is especially true of periodic data such as
from tires, rotating machinery, helicopters, etc. These scenarios are the
focus of this page. All have a clearly identifiable periodic aspect (or two)
that is driving the problem.

Sadly, FFTs are seldom, if ever, presented as being regression curve-fits. They are
usually presented as yet another obtuse mathematical process that converts
time data into frequency data. But their subtle properties are not communicated.

So let's start with an example of linear regression of a quadratic function in order
to demonstrate the important fundamental principals.
The function in the graph below is \(y = x^2\), plotted from \(x = -1\) to \(x = 3\).

Now fit a line, \(y = Ax + B\), to the function. This is done by choosing
\(A\) and \(B\) such that the following integral is minimized. It represents the
error, hence the \(E\), in fitting the line to the function. At each point,
the two functions are subtracted from each other to obtain the difference, which
is then squared so the result is always positive, and then added-up through
the integration process.

\[
E = \int_{-1}^3 \left[ \left( x^2 \right) - \left( A x + B \right) \right]^2 dx
\]
This is minimized by taking the derivatives with respect to \(A\) and \(B\)
and setting them equal to zero. This gives two simultaneous equations that
are solved for \(A\) and \(B\).

So far, so good. But now comes the misinterpretations. They arise from
the linear regression we just obtained, which produced a line with slope
equal to 2.0. These include (i) \(y = x^2\) has a straight component because
otherwise the linear function would not have fit it, (ii) it has a linear
component because otherwise the \(2x\) term would not have appeared, and
(iii) \(y = x^2\) has a slope equal 2.0 because \(A = 2.0\).
Of course, all of these conclusions are ridiculously wrong. And the example
is simple enough that this is evident.

Alternatively, we could have
done the opposite. We could have fit the quadratic function to the line and
declared that the line must therefore have a curvy quadratic aspect to it because
the quadratic function fit it. Hopefully, this is equally absurd.
Yet, these are exactly the types of incorrect conclusions that are reached
concerning Fourier transforms.

Recall that it was claimed up above that an FFT is nothing more than a curve-fit.
It is in fact just a multivariable, linear regression.

Fourier Transforms

A Fourier transform is nothing more than the curve-fit of a collection of
sine and cosine functions to some data. Those sine and cosine functions are

Plots of Fourier Transforms

It should be pointed out that plots of Fourier transforms, such as the
example shown here, are plots of only the magnitudes, \(A'\!_n\). The
phase lags are seldom, if ever, plotted. And a plot of magnitudes
alone is not the complete picture because the phase lag info is missing.
Granted, people are seldom interested in phase lags. But nevertheless,
it is not possible to determine the original time signal from a plot
of magnitudes without the accompanying phase lags. Conversely, many
different time signals can transform to produce the same plot of
harmonic magnitudes, but they will have different phase lags.

\[
y = \sum_{n=0}^N A'\!_n \cos ({ 2 \pi n x \over L} - \phi_n)
\]

So given a function or set of data, \(f(x)\), the objective is to choose the amplitude
and phase lag of all the trig functions to best fit the curve or data. Keep in mind that
you are fitting complete, integer cycles of the trig functions. This is critical and
will come up again shortly.

Applying the same minimization process as the above quadratic example leads to

\[
B_n = {2 \over L} \int_{x_1}^{x_2} f(x) \sin ({ 2 \pi n x \over L}) \, dx
\]
These two equations represent an amazing result. Unlike the linear regression to the quadratic
function above, which led to simultaneous equations, these equations are NOT interdependent.
They stand alone, permitting one to calculate any single \(A_n\) or \(B_n\) completely
independent of the others. This independence is incredibly convenient.

Fourier Transforms of Transient Data

Note that if the data is a function of time, \(f(t)\), rather than position, \(f(x)\),
then the transform equations become

The fundamental frequency of the transform is \({1 / T}\) and the
frequency of each nth harmonic is \({n / T}\).

Fourier Transforms in Digital Form

In the real world, everything is digital now-a-days, so the integrals
are replaced by summations over digitally-sampled experimental data.
For example \(f(x)\) becomes \(f_i\). Likewise, \(x/L = i/N\), and
the transformation equations become

Fourier Transforms of Basic Functions

We will work our way up to complex cases by first starting with
simple sinusoids. For example, consider this most basic one with
amplitude = 1.

The FFT is simple here. The magnitude is 1 at harmonic 1 on the x-axis.
It is at harmonic 1 because the time signal contains exactly 1 complete
cycle of a sine wave, neither more nor less.

This example shows that the time signal is much more complex this time.
It is just busy enough to disguise the underlying harmonics contributing
to the plot.

But the FFT is still quite simple. It shows that the complicated time
signal is nothing more than the sum of two sine waves. This is the great
power of an FFT... to decompose complex time signals into their
underlying components.

For contrast, consider the time signal below. It is still a nice well-behaved
sine function. But the key fact here is that it does not contain an
integer number of cycles. It is in fact one and one-quarter cycles.

The FFT of this data is surprisingly complex. There are suddenly many
harmonics with energy. This can be very misleading because they suggest
(incorrectly) that the signal contains vibrations at 1.0Hz, 2.0Hz, 3.0Hz,
etc. But the time signal clearly shows that the 'vibration' was only at
1.25Hz (1 / 0.8sec). The problem here is that the FFT was NOT
performed on an integer number of cycles of the time signal!

This is neither right nor wrong. It is simply a fact of life that if you
are trying to curve-fit 125% of a sine wave with integer cycles of sine
waves, then it will take a lot of them to do so. But again, it doesn't
mean that the sine wave in this example contains all these frequencies.
It is simply a 1.25Hz signal being curve-fit by 1.0Hz, 2.0Hz, etc sine waves.

Contributions of Individual Harmonics

The table below gives specific results for the first 5 harmonics plotted
in the FFT figure just above.
The column labeled "\(A_n \cos\)" contains the cosine coefficients, and
the column labeled "\(B_n \sin\)" contains the sine coefficients.
These are followed by the magnitude and phase lag columns. Recall that
the magnitude and phase columns are akin to polar coordinates, while
the \(A_n\) and \(B_n\) columns are rectangular in nature.

Freq

\(A_n \cos\)

\(B_n \sin\)

Mag

Phase

0 Hz (DC)

0.119

-

0.119

-

1 Hz

0.691

0.566

0.894

39.3°

2 Hz

-0.179

-0.261

0.316

-124°

3 Hz

-0.069

-0.128

0.145

-119°

4 Hz

-0.044

-0.087

0.097

-117°

5 Hz

-0.033

-0.066

0.074

-116°

The figure below compares the original time signal (in blue) to the curve-fits
containing the first harmonic alone (in green), and the first 3 harmonics (in red).
The key thing to note is that the fit improves as more harmonics are added.

Another example: Now add "zeroes" to the end of the sinusoid as follows. Clearly the zeroes
do not represent any vibration at all. The only vibration takes place at 1 Hz
during the first second of time.

Yet the FFT of this data is also very complex. Again, there are many
harmonics with energy. They indicate that the signal contains vibrations
at 0.5Hz, 1.0Hz, 1.5Hz, etc. But the time signal clearly shows that the
'vibration' was only at 1Hz, and only for the first second.

The explanation is relatively straight forward, if not obvious. Remember
that an FFT is only a regression in which sines and cosines are fit to
the time signal. But keep in mind that the sines and cosines being fit
are active throughout the whole time window. So this time, since the
signal is something (anything) other than a sinusoid over the whole
window, then other harmonics must be needed to improve the curve-fit.

And there is another issue in this example, and an important one at that.
It is the amplitude of the 1Hz harmonic in the FFT result. It is exactly
1/2 because the time signal has amplitude, 1, but is active for only
half of the window. So a conservation of energy requirement is in effect.

In spite of all the harmonics in the FFT result. The only relevant one
is that at 1Hz, but you must know the time signal in order to know this.
You can't tell from the FFT alone.

Contributions of Individual Harmonics

This repeats the above exercise.

The table below gives specific results for the first 5 harmonics plotted
in the FFT figure just above.
The column labeled "\(A_n \cos\)" contains the cosine coefficients, and
the column labeled "\(B_n \sin\)" contains the sine coefficients.
These are followed by the magnitude and phase lag columns. Recall that
the magnitude and phase columns are akin to polar coordinates, while
the \(A_n\) and \(B_n\) columns are rectangular in nature.

Freq

\(A_n \cos\)

\(B_n \sin\)

Mag

Phase

0.0 Hz (DC)

0.000

-

0.119

-

0.5 Hz

0.424

0.000

0.424

0°

1.0 Hz

0.000

0.500

0.500

90°

1.5 Hz

-0.255

0.000

0.255

180°

2.0 Hz

0.000

0.000

0.000

0°

2.5 Hz

-0.061

0.000

0.061

180°

The figure below compares the original time signal (in blue) to the curve-fits
containing the first harmonic alone (in green), and the first 3 harmonics (in red).
The key thing to note is that the fit improves as more harmonics are added.

Now try another example. This time the second cycle of the sine wave is
the negative of the first, effectivly mirroring the signal about the t=1sec mark.

The transform of this signal is also relatively complex, containing several
harmonics. But it is clear that the 1Hz, 2Hz, etc harmonics are zero.
This is expected because the time signal during the 2nd second will exactly
cancel that of the first in the integral transform equations.

Now extend this further. This time, extend the zeroes until the
sinusoid is only 1/4 of the total signal.

The FFT result is now as shown below. The important point is that only the
harmonic at 1Hz is relevant. All the others only contribute to curve-fitting.
Also, the 1Hz amplitude is only 1/4 of the actual time signal amplitude
because of the energy conservation effect.

Fourier Transforms of Impulses

Impulse Deformations in a Tire

As discussed at the top of this page in the
Background Section,
the deformations in a tire are not
simple sinusoids. They are impulses, so their FFTs are not trivial.

Start the sinusoid 90° earlier to make it look like the
impulse found in FEA results of rolling tires.
Keep the 1/4 ratio as above, although this can in fact be any ratio
in a tire: 1/5, 1/6, 1/7, etc.
Also, note that although the peak value is 2, the amplitude is still
equal to 1.

The FFT of this result looks, and is, quite different from the previous FFT.
But the amazing result is that the 1Hz component is unchanged. It still
has amplitude equal to 1/4 just as before, because, as before, it is the only harmonic that directly
matches the frequency of the time pulse. Going in reverse, one would read the amplitude off the FFT
at 1Hz and scale it up by a factor of 4 to obtain the amplitude of the
actual sine pulse that is present in 1/4 of the total window.

Impact of Pulse Tests on Material Properties

The plot below shows sample time traces of stress and strain signals
for a material being subjected to pulse-type lab tests.
The time delay between the two is exagerated for clarity.
The phase lag is computed by performing FFTs on both signals and then
subtracting the two phase values AT THE SINGLE APPROPRIATE
HARMONIC to obtain the phase lag between the stress input and the
strain output.

Pulse-type lab tests have a significant impact on the material's phase
lag, \(\delta\), at the higher strain levels, above
the usual ~8% strain level where \(\tan(\delta)\) usually maxes out
under conventional sinusoidal testing. The difference is
that under pulse testing, the phase lag follows the red curve in
the figure below. (I don't recall any major impact on modulus.)

Synchronization and Transients

Fourier Transforms of Helicopter Data

This section presents portions of a briefing on UH-1 "Huey" helicopter vibrations.
It addresses one of the major misinterpretations of FFTs, that of assuming vibrations
are present at frequencies over which they are not.
The full briefing, presented at the 2009 Aging Aircraft Conference, is
here.

The following graph shows a portion of the vibration signal
of the tailboom of a helicopter. It is known that the vibrations occur at
5.39 Hz and multiples of it, as well as 27.65 Hz and multiples of it.
The dominant vibration is at 2 * 5.39 = 10.78 Hz.

And this graph shows the result of performing an FFT on 10 seconds of the data.
It is clear that spikes occur at-and-around the frequencies listed above.
But there is also energy present at the lowest frequencies, ~1 Hz.
But they do not represent vibrations at these low frequencies, although they
are often mistaken for this. They represent transient drifts in the time data
over 10 seconds. (As an aside, the frequency spacing is 0.1 Hz because
the time window is 10 sec.)

The fact that the data drifts over 10 seconds can be confirmed by instead
performing FFTs over shorter time intervals. The following graph shows
an FFT of 1 sec of data. The low frequency energy content is now gone.
But the sidebands are still present. The frequency spacing is 1 Hz
(because the time window is 1 sec), and this is not quite in sync
with the 5.39 Hz actual frequency content.

This final graph shows the rather large difference one obtains by simply
making a very small change in the time window over which the FFTs are performed.
In this case, the time window is 1.1132 sec, which contains exactly
six complete cycles of the 5.39 Hz fundamental signal. It is clear
that synchronizing the time window over which the FFT is performed with
the fundamental vibration frequency has demonstrated that they
are "clean". No actual vibrations are present at the sidebands seen in
the earlier graph.

The moral of the story here is to synchronize the sampling window with
the fundamental vibration frequencies being analyzed. The second key point
is to check for transients whenever energy is present at low frequencies.
This usually means that the time window is too long.